Mormon Church purchases 2% of the state of Florida for half a billion dollars

A sect of the Mormon Church is poised to become the largest private landowner in the state of Florida after spending more than half a billion dollars to purchase hundreds of thousands of acres across three counties.

Representatives from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day
Saints announced Thursday they had bought most of the
real estate owned by the St. Joe development company for $565
million. Municipalities in Bay, Calhoun, Franklin, Gadsden, Gulf,
Jefferson, Leon, Liberty and Wakulla counties are included in the
nearly 400,000 acres of land. The land, much of which is rich
with timber, is located along the Florida panhandle.

The St. Joe Co. has owned the land for more than a dozen years
and originally planned to profit from so-called master-planned
communities in the region. That plan went sour when the real
estate bubble bust, costing the company $330 million in 2011
alone.

The church already owns a large cattle ranch in the center of the
state, according to the Associated Press, and much of this new
land is not within current residential and commercial development
zones. AgReserves Inc., an entity used by the church for
taxpaying purposes, officially purchased the land.

“AgReserves has demonstrated its commitment to wise land
stewardship and prudent resource management during more than 60
years of ranching and agricultural operations in east-central
Florida,” Paul Genho, chairman of the AgReserves board, told
reporters Thursday. “We will apply that same commitment and
expertise to managing the property we are acquiring in Florida’s
Panhandle. We look to the long term in everything we
do.”

Floridians may have cause to be optimistic if the church’s land
holding in central Florida is any indication. Desert Ranches –
which includes land in Orange, Osceola, and Brevard counties –
has become increasingly important to the stability of Orlando’s
irrigation, as well as the region’s road and rail
networks.

More than 100 people live on the ranch while maintaining
approximately 44,000 heads of cattle at any given time. Livestock
has been bred to thrive in Florida’s tropical climate and the
ranch grows enough oranges to produce 50 million glasses of juice
each year, according to KSL-TV in Utah.

“Just the nature of our ranching operations is a huge benefit
to the surrounding area because of the diversity of habitat it
creates for wildlife,” Erik Jacobsen, general manager of the
ranch, said in 2011. “It creates a huge area for groundwater
recharge.”

With the newly purchased land on the panhandle, AgReserves said
it expected to begin producing potatoes and sweet corn for the
food processing industry in the region.

“We have felt that good farms, over a long period, represent a
safe investment where the assets of the church may be preserved
and enhanced, while at the same time they are available as an
agricultural resource to feed people should there come a time of
need,” said former church president Gordon B. Hinckley.